Peter the Great — "Ignorance and obstinacy are the greatest enemies of the state."
Ignorance and obstinacy are the greatest enemies of the state.
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More from Peter the Great
"It is better to have one good admiral than ten bad ones."
"I have never been afraid to get my hands dirty."
"I know I have the vices of a man, but I have the virtues of a tsar."
"When you are a great man, you must also be a great butcher."
"I have to drag my people out of darkness into the light."
About Peter the Great (1672-1725)
Russian tsar (1682-1725) who Westernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built Russia into a European great power. Closely associated with Catherine the Great (later Westernizing Russian empress). For an intellectual contrast, see Old Believers, Russian Orthodox traditionalist movement that rejected Patriarch Nikon's reforms and Peter's modernization — Peter's beard-shaving decrees, Western dress laws, and calendar changes triggered a religious-cultural schism — the founding poles of Russia's eternal 'European modernity vs Slavic tradition' debate that runs through Slavophiles, Solzhenitsyn, and contemporary Putin-era ideology.